Seek and You Shall Find

I love to play hidden object games, perhaps because they seem to be a metaphor for life.  For those not familiar, they consist in many cases of a photo or picture of some setting, and in that setting are objects to locate that are not (usually) easily seen.

What is fascinating about this is that the objects are always there.  Some are in plain sight, hardly disguised, and yet they are very challenging to find.  One such game has been on my computer for a number of years.  I have played it (and beaten it) over and over and over.  My kids ask why I don't get another.  Frankly, because this one is still challenging.  Even though I have found all of these objects many times, they still can be hard to locate when I go through yet again.

Why is that?  Once you see the object it is almost always very clear and obvious.  But to find it is often very challenging because there is so much STUFF in the picture.  Certain things make up the picture and they seem to be quick to attract your attention.  You have to focus; you have to make a real effort to seek out certain objects.  For me, it means I have to search with that object in mind.

So it is in life.  For most of us, life is full of large pictures full of world problems, local problems, family problems, bodily problems.  To find certain things that make life worthwhile can take looking-- seeking.  It may take a good deal of focus with the idea in mind.  If you are looking for love, or joy, or health, or abundance, or peace in a world with pictures of hate, depression, illness, poverty, and war, it can be quite a challenge.  Sometimes it takes really focusing, really seeking with what you want to find in mind.

What does this look like?  If you are looking for health it might look like this:

Oh my gosh, there is that pain again...  [Is that health? No?  Then stop focusing on that.] The neighbor's child is ill again.  I can hear him coughing from here. [Is that health? Stop focusing on that.]   Look at those children running by me-- they look so healthy and full of life!  [There you go! You are recognizing and accenting health!]  Look at my hands- they work well and are in great health! [You're doing it!]  Look at my pet- in perfect health!  My children, my spouse, my neighbor, --- some part of me-- is in perfect health. 

It happens inadvertently to all of us at some point.  We are pregnant-- suddenly women everywhere seem to be pregnant.  We buy a red car-- suddenly the world is full of red cars!  We buy a new board (skate, surf, snow) and suddenly we see it everywhere!

As you build a focus on health (or anything else), it will start to appear all around you.  So it is with many of the things we seek.  Seek them.  Don't be deterred by the opposite pictures or the crowded visual of other things to look at.  Seek what is meaningful to you and focus on it.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, you will begin to see more of what you seek.